The warehouse on Dockside Row looked abandoned to anyone who didn't know better. Moss grew between the cracks of the concrete, and the rusted shutters hadn't moved in years. The city had left this place behind like a corpse buried beneath the neon skyline.
But Elias knew better. The HUD overlay painted a different picture — faint residual signals blinking like embers under layers of static. A heartbeat of data pulsed beneath the decaying surface.
Dizzy stood watch at the alley corner, spinning a butterfly knife with more flair than caution. "You sure this ain't a trap? 'Cause it looks like the kinda place rats go to die."
Elias crouched near a locked side door, eyes scanning the threshold. "No patrols. System grid is weak here. That means something's hiding."
"You say that like it's a good thing," Dizzy muttered.
Elias didn't answer. He slid a crowbar from his duffel and wedged the door open. The rusted hinges groaned like the building was waking up.
Inside, the air was stale but not dead. Dust coated everything — old pallets, shattered crates, a broken vending machine in the corner. But something felt off. Bootprints in the grime. A cracked mug on a table. A fuse box humming faintly, too new to belong.
Someone had been here recently. Someone careful.
Then the system pinged.
******
[Hidden Node Located – Dockside Relay Point]
Status: Degraded | Not Controlled by Any User
Potential Utility: Black Market Comm Link – Tier 0
Claim Node? Y/N
Cost: 4 CP
Warning: Node May Trigger Hostile Detection
******
He confirmed without hesitation.
-4 Crime Points
New Total: 25 CP
Dockside Relay Point Claimed
Black Market Comm Link [UNLOCKED]
******
The wall near the breaker shimmered faintly. A terminal folded out from a hidden panel, unfolding like a blooming steel flower. Lights flickered to life, scanning Elias's signal signature with an eerie hum. Then came the voice — crackled, but human.
"You're not one of the Syndicate dogs."
Elias stepped closer. "Who is this?"
"Name's Sera. You tripped my passive feed. You claim this node, you claim communication with me. And that means you're serious about digging deeper."
Her voice was low, deliberate. Calculated. This wasn't street-level. This was infrastructure-level — someone watching the game from the grid itself.
"I need allies," Elias said. "Ones not chained to the core system."
"You'll need more than allies," she replied. "You'll need insulation. You're already tagged, Kane. You think choosing the rogue path came without eyes?"
He stiffened. "You know my name."
"I've been tracking anomalies since Kamar. You're not the first rogue. But you might be the last if you don't start thinking bigger."
She uploaded a packet directly into his system's side buffer.
[New Quest Thread: Shadow Infrastructure]
Objective: Identify and Secure 3 Underground Communication Nodes
Reward: Permanent Access to RogueNet | +12 CP | Unlock [Data Broker] System Branch
The implications were massive.
RogueNet.
A separate communication web — possibly older than the system itself. And if Sera was right, there were others like him. Maybe not system users, but hackers, info ghosts, system-breakers. People who operated in the blind spots.
Back outside, Dizzy was lighting a cigarette and scowling at a drone buzzing overhead like a lazy wasp. "Took your sweet time. We get anything?"
"We got a ghost on the line and a new objective," Elias said. "And we just pissed in a well-watched pool."
Dizzy exhaled, blowing smoke toward the broken skyline. "Just once, I want you to say, 'We're safe now.' Like, just pretend for my mental health."
"We're safe now," Elias lied, deadpan.
The drive back toward the Eastblock was quiet, a rare thing in the Blackridge underworld. Dizzy had nodded off by the time they crossed the River Divide. But Elias was wide awake, his eyes scanning every tail light, every intersection, every flicker of motion outside the window.
Halfway down Riverside Road, the comm crackled again. Not Sera. Not the system. Something else.
******
[New Transmission Intercepted – Unauthorized Broadcast Detected]
Trace Origin: Unknown
Message: "Kane. I remember your face."
******
The line cut.
Elias's grip on the steering wheel tightened.
That voice wasn't system-born. It wasn't coded. It was raw, human, angry. And it knew him.
The system had secrets. But so did Elias. He'd burned bridges in the past. Left enemies alive out of necessity or mercy. Now, one of them had found a microphone.
The game wasn't just changing. It was remembering.
And Elias was finally starting to realize—
He wasn't the only one building something out of the shadows.